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What’s Bruin Show: UCLA Football Retrospective (1998-2018)

By Mike Regalado

17 Oct 1998: Quarterback Cade McNown #18 of the UCLA Bruins in action during the game against the Oregon Ducks at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Bruins defeated the Ducks 41-38. Mandatory Credit: Todd Warshaw /Allsport
17 Oct 1998: Quarterback Cade McNown #18 of the UCLA Bruins in action during the game against the Oregon Ducks at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Bruins defeated the Ducks 41-38. Mandatory Credit: Todd Warshaw /Allsport /
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What’s Bruin Show has put out a very special episode in preparation for the 2018 season. ‘UCLA Football Retrospective (1998-2018)’, a look at the last 20 years of Bruin football leading up to Chip Kelly.

It is hard being a UCLA football fan and no one knows that better than Jake Merrifield, UCLA alum, season ticket holder since 1998 and one of the hosts/creators of ‘What’s Bruin Show’, a podcast about anything and everything Bruin sports.

RELATED: UCLA Football Game-By-Game Regular Season Predictions

In this very special episode of WBS, I tag along with Merrifield as he chronicles the UCLA football program over the last 20 years, venturing from the Bob Toledo era all the way up to the start of the 2018 season, the season Chip Kelly takes over.

For Bruins fans, the last 20 years have been hard to deal with whether it is UCLA’s loss to Miami and the underwhelming Rose Bowl in 1998, or three underperforming coaches that have not exactly kept the Bruins up to the standards of a premier college football program.

But it hasn’t been all dark. There have also been some good times, like UCLA’s 1998 Pac-12 Championship and more recently, two South Divison titles since the conference went to 12 teams. Unfortunately, there is not much more to brag about.

UCLA has a rich history of success, but it has been few and far between since 1998. Merrifield takes you through what went right and what went wrong with hires, philosophies, rosters and why things could be changing for the better with UCLA’s newest hire.

dark. Next. UCLA Football: 10 bold predictions for the 2018 season

Also, check out WBS’s other two recent podcasts, both available through Go Joe Bruin: The Wayne Cook Interview and the Cincinnati Bearcats Preview.